It causes deep concern that
the armed forces may have been penetrated by ideologically driven
groups.

One must
beware of perverse patriotism, disturbing signs of which have been
recently manifest. The arrest of an Army officer on suspicion of having
assisted alleged Hindu right extremist terror bombings in Malegaon
and possibly elsewhere appears sinister. At the moment here are only
allegations that must be thoroughly investigated before definitive
conclusions are reached.

Nevertheless,
enough has been established to cause deep concern that the armed forces
may have been penetrated by dangerous, ideologically driven groups.

The civil and, specially, uniformed services are non-political servants
of the people acting under the directions of the government of the
day, owning allegiance to the Constitution and not to any extraneous
ideology or group.

The defence
minister has taken note of whatever has happened and intends to get
to the root of the matter so that incipient mischief is nipped in
the bud. Meanwhile, the single incident that has come to light should
not be considered a trend but an aberration.

What is surprising, however, is the response of the spokesmen of the
Parivar. They disown any association with sadhvi Pragya and other
civil suspects held for the Malegaon bombing. Yet they take the line
that Hindus cannot be terrorists and that the armed forces are a part
of Indian society which has been horrified by the pusillanimous and
apologetic approach of the UPA government to terror attacks and cannot
therefore be blamed for patriotic reactions.

This apologia
comes close to showing sympathy for and indirectly condoning what
is undoubtedly a grave dereliction of duty and rank indiscipline.
It echoes the chorus from across the border in praise of “freedom
fighters” as opposed to terrorists, “our” boys versus
the dreadful “other”. Such pernicious double talk is scarcely
in keeping with the Parivar’s insistent demand for “strong”
action against terror.

The same
attitude of “patriotic anger” was revealed in the disgraceful
conduct of young ABVP hoodlums who broke up a Delhi University meeting
on Democracy and Fascism last week and spat on one of the invited
speakers, SAR Geelani, who was discharged by the Supreme Court in
the parliament bombing case. What was witnessed was fascism in action,
made worse by two comments by the saffron fraternity. ABVP president,
Nupur Sharma said that the offenders were not ABVP members but “outsiders”
and then went on to state in a TV discussion that she would have done
much the same thing in patriotic anger against the government’s
poor record in fighting terror.

The BJP
spokesman, Ravi Pratap Rudy’s comment was that the protest against
Geelani could have been “more hygienic” but was nevertheless
an expression of “patriotic emotion” on the part of students
with regard to what was perceived as Geelani’s mistrial. VHP’s
Pravin Togadia repeated the same mantra as senior RSS spokesmen and
other saffronites that a Hindu by definition cannot be a terrorist.
He warned that persisting with such “false charges” against
a Sadhvi and army personnel would evoke a “political backlash.”

In another
episode last August, BJP-backed protesters in Jammu rioted and vandalised
property during the Amarnath Yatra Board land agitation. Here again
the commentary extolled demonstrations by “patriotic Indians”
holding aloft the tricolour, as against Valley separatists brazenly
marching to Muzaffarabad. The national flag must be honoured but cannot
be used as a shield against riot police.

Perverse
patriotism feeding on false notions of jingoistic nationalism must
be squarely fought as it manifests a malignant fascism. Terrorism
is terrorism, irrespective of community, and can find no place in
a democratic society that offers many avenues for grievance redressal.
Even if poor or partisan governance, political bias in policing and
a creaking criminal justice system have closed many doors, wrong means
cannot be justified in the name of seeking right ends.

The Delhi
High Court has sternly admonished police officials to stop rushing
to hold press conferences to leak premature and fallible “leads”
that disclose their line of investigation and instead get on with
their job of bringing criminals to justice. Warped notions of public
interest and press freedom have made nonsense of good reporting and
a growingly irresponsible section of the media is becoming a social
menace rather than performing its proper role of mediation.

Two other
straws merit comment. Though Chaat Puja passed off peacefully, one
must be wary of the tendency to use festivals for political and electoral
mobilisation and to overawe “the other” whosoever that
other might be.

The second
relates to a parliamentary committee recommendation that would make
a non-official chairman of the Central Wakf Board rather than a Joint
Secretary as at present. But why on earth should government enter
this constitutionally forbidden territory and, likewise, fund Haj,
Kailash-Mansarovar and other pilgrimages at the taxpayers’ expense?
This is to dilute secularism, court trouble and invite competitive
religiosity to garner votes.

Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind
clerics have just met in Hyderabad to reinforce their previous Deoband
fatwa denouncing terror masquerading as jihad. This is a positive
move and should the starting point for further efforts in the direction
of national integration. Bhutan and the Maldives are happily marching
towards democracy and Barack Obama has set an inspiring example by
going beyond narrow identity politics to set himself larger and higher
goals for the United States and the world. These are beacon lights
to follow.